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Summer Guide

College Guide

This is Life

May 30, 2012

By Anonymous

Panting, pain, footsteps, and that final moment when you know you finished. This is life. This is pole vault. As a freshman coming into high school the only thing I knew was that I was a cheerleader and I was fresh meat. The stories of high school scared me and the other kids intimidated me. Going on through high school and cheering at games I was so mesmerized by it I forgot that all too soon it would be over. Once cheer ended I felt as if I needed to keep on working out, needed to stay busy so I decided to join track. As I went to that first day I didn’t know which even I really wanted to do I felt running wasn’t really my thing then I saw it the amazing pole vaulters.

That first day I see about 6 students will huge pole and see them run down an aisle and jump onto some huge pits. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life!! It was something I had never seen before it was as if they were just flying in the air and it looked so easy once I joined I realized I could not have been more wrong. Pole Vault was the hardest sport I had ever done it required not only physical but mental strength as well. Working out every day to build up upper body strength and then apply to my vault was a rollercoaster ride but it was all made up the first time I cleared the bar.

As a freshman I was scared enough but as soon as I got on that runway it was as if the entire world just paused for a second and all that was left was me, the pole, and the bar. I ran those steps and planted my pole and drove my knee and for those 5 seconds I was flying carefree into the air. It was by far the best feeling I had ever had but what made it even better was looking back and seeing the orange bar sitting steadily on the standards. That was it. I was a proud 14 year old girl who had finally cleared 6 feet.

Ever since then I continued pole vault and realized I not only fell in love with the people who are now considered my “pole vault tribe” but I also fell in love with the sport that everyone called crazy. However, I think that’s what needs to happen you have to be a bit crazy to do something worth sharing. Pole vault isn’t just a sport it’s a way of life, a way of being out of the ordinary and a way of showing everyone around that it’s never as easy as it seems.

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